(Clearwisdom.net) From February 7 to 9 2003, the annual traditional
Vietnamese New Year Celebration was held at the Warwick Farm Horse Racing
Field west of Sydney. The event was organized by Vietnamese Community of New
South Wales province and it has nearly 100,000 people came to the event. This
year, it was the 22nd celebration.
This is also the third year that Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the celebration. Directly facing the stage was the booth rent by Falun Dafa practitioners. They carefully decorated the booth and displayed Dafa related materials in Vietnamese, English and Chinese languages. At two outsides of the booth, it was the "The Journey of Falun Dafa" picture show. Inside the booth, the wall was decorated with photos of practitioners doing exercises in many countries. The practitioners took turns to demonstrate the exercises and sent forth righteous thought on top of each hour. The display attracted bunches of visitors stopped to watch. People asked for information about Falun Dafa and consulted with the practitioners all the time. Many Vietnamese asked for the schedule of group exercises and requested the exercises teaching CD in Vietnamese. One night, a young Vietnamese talked with a practitioner for a long time. Later, he entered the booth and sat down to discuss with two Vietnamese Australian practitioners. They talked and talked until the field closed at mid-night. In the celebration area, people are willing to accept and asked for Falun Dafa materials and politely greeted to practitioners "Happy New Year!" The materials were distributed quickly. After three days, about 50,000 copies of materials were sent out. In the evening, the practitioners played video of exercises teaching by the Teacher and truth-clarifying VCDs. The organizer of the event, city councilman of Bankstown, Mr. Nhan Tran came to the Falun Gong booth and talked to the practitioner. He said, "Falun Gong practices Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance, no violence, very peaceful. We fully support Falun Gong."
Many council members had booths in the field. They came to the Falun Dafa booth to meet the practitioners. They were very willing to accept Dafa related materials and initiatively signed their names on the form for "Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance" monument.
This year, the practitioners were invited to perform on the stage and at the Vietnam Sydney radio station for the first time. On February 9, 2003 practitioners performed twice at shortly after 3PM and after 7PM. They performed Tang Dynasty Costumes, Pudu dance and little practitioners from Minghui School demonstrated the exercises. Before the performance at 3PM, practitioner Vela briefly introduced Falun Dafa to the audiences. She said, "There are about 100 million people practices Falun Gong in the world. We followed the principle of Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance. At this New Year time, we want to appreciate the organizers, the Vietnam Community of New South Wales that gave us the chance. We want to thank Vietnamese Sydney Radio for your support to Falun Gong and bring the Falun Gong to Vietnamese people. We wish all of you will save the three words Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance in your heart and have a very happy new year." The director of Vietnamese Sydney Radio Mr. Joachim Nguyen translated the English to Vietnamese at the same time and live broadcast the Falun Dafa performances. (Note: this radio station has a Falun Dafa introductory program every week over the last 6 months.)
After the second performance at 7PM, during the loud applause, the celebration organizing unit presented flowers to the Falun Dafa group as well as a "Red Envelop", a tradition for good fortune in the New Year. The practitioners decided to use the 100 Australian dollar in the envelope to print more truth-clarifying materials so as to let more Vietnamese people know Falun Gong and the truth of the persecution.
The practitioners were moved by the support from Vietnamese Community and city residents. They sincerely wished the kindhearted people have a happy and beautiful future.
